WITH the huge crowd that mobbed the opening of the Dagupan Bangus Festival on April 15, the presence of the second highest official of Timor Leste and his family who joined the celebration was hardly noticed.

But those at home watching the live coverage of the festival’s opening on cable television through Urban Satellite Vision (USATV) got a closer view of Fernando La Sama De Araojo, president of the National Parliament of Timor Leste, and his family, while they jostled their way into the milling crowd.

“We are grateful for this event,” De Araojo said, “We came at the right time.”

Watching the Gilon-Gilon street dancers garbed in colorful costumes depicting Dagupan’s number one product, bangus, De Araojo said, “I can see that this dancing is very important to the people of Dagupan. It is very lively and beautiful.”

De Araojo, who is better known in his country by his nom de guerre La Sama, was with his Dagupena wife, the former Jacqueline Aquino Siapno, a university professor, and their only child Hadomi as official guests of Dagupan City.

The three, together with an unarmed Timorese bodyguard, joined the opening parade aboard a gray sedan and excitedly watched the street dancers at the city plaza when they performed the Gilon-Gilon.

“It was very enjoyable, very exciting”, said an amused De Araojo inside the office of Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. at the city museum after the parade.

Arriving in Manila on Monday, De Araojo was fetched at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by staff of the Timor Leste embassy in Manila, and then arrived in Dagupan the following day on a car sent for him by the city mayor.

De Araojo said he’s on a “very, very private visit in Dagupan” to be with his wife and son who arrived more than a week earlier, as well as spend time with his wife’s relatives, the Siapno and Aquino clans.

On Tuesday, the family took a tricycle from their hotel in the city to the home of his father-in-law, lawyer Juan Siapno, in Barangay Bonuan Binloc.

The Timorese official expects to be in Dagupan for a week, just enough to give the family more time for bonding, an opportunity which he said they are hardly able to do back in his country.

“We work 12 to 14 hours every day and at the end of the day, we find that there are many more things still left to be done,” De Araojo told newsmen.

De Araojo, on his second five-year term as member of parliament, said he hopes to return to the city every year.

“My father-in-law has a plan and he said he’s going to put a small room on the beach for our use while vacationing in Dagupan,” he added.

This is De Araojo’s third visit to Dagupan since marrying his wife, Jacqueline, nicknamed Joy and the first time since he was elected as the second highest official of East Timor.

LIKE HOME

De Araojo said he does like bangus and his family is actually considering initiating a bangus business in his country.

While acknowledging that his young country is still struggling towards development, he likened it to the Philippines and proudly listed the economic and cultural ties shared by the two countries.

“We also have a beautiful beach like Dagupan’s. We are a similar country because majority of the people here are Catholics. Of East Timor’s 1.1 million population, 98 percent are Catholics,” he said.

De Araojo is optimistic that his country will be self-sufficient in rice supply within five years as it will adopt the technologies learned by technicians from the Philippines, among other countries.

He said his country has been sending many technicians here to learn about agricultural techniques in the Philippines, including some 100 Timorese students now enrolled in some universities in the country.

Timorese doctors have also been acquiring field specializations here.

“I can guarantee you that in the next five years, the situation in our country will change and the life of our people will be changed,” he said.—LM

HONORARY SON

Meanwhile, Araojo has been declared an honorary son of Dagupan through a resolution passed by the city council.

Sangguniang Panlungsod Resolution No. 6362-2009 was personally handed to Araojo, on Thursday night during a dinner tendered in his honor by the city at the mayor’s Fishpond Resort in Barangay Bacayao Norte.

Araojo was accompanied by his wife and son during the evening’s celebration.

Councilor Farah Marie Decano said another resolution of commendation for Mrs. Araojo was in recognition for her achievement of having distinguished herself in the academe and as a woman leader.

A political economist, Mrs. Araojo, along with husband, played a significant role in the campaign for independence of East Timor.

As a member of Amnesty International, she visited political prisoners languishing in jail while writing about the struggle for independence in Aceh, Indonesia and East Timor.

One of those she visited was her future husband Fernando who was in a prison in Jakarta, Indonesia as a political prisoner charged of committing subversion.

During the Thursday evening occasion, a Memorandum of Intent to establish sister-cities relationship between the cities of Dagupan and Ainaro City in East Timor was also signed between Fernandez and Araojo.

Ainaro is a mountain city in East Timor where Araojo comes from.

The signing was witnessed by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, Mrs. De Araujo and Ambassador Francisco Cepeda of the Democratic Republic of East Timor.

Decano said that MOA is still subject to the passage of appropriate resolutions by both cities and in accordance with the legal processes required in both countries.-LM

Back to Homepage

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments